


Adios, Toreador

by Olivia_Ivy



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - X-Men Fusion, Character Death, Doomed Timelines
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-16
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 05:09:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3368990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olivia_Ivy/pseuds/Olivia_Ivy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>War is brewing in the lands of Alternia and Beforus. As a result, families send their mutant children to the only other safe place in the world for them: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. But war is drawing near and the kids won't be kept out of the battle for long.</p><p>This is one story about the beginning of the war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Adios, Toreador

**Author's Note:**

> 1st and foremost: Vriska's not evil in this. She didn't kill Aradia, she didn't blind Terezi, and she didn't cripple Tavros. Vriska. Is. Not. Evil. In. This. 
> 
> 2nd: This is set in the X-Men universe, but the characters from X-Men don't exist, except for one.
> 
> 3rd: Alternia and Beforus are real, physical places on Earth, don't ask me where.
> 
> 4th: Yes I ship TaVrisk.
> 
> 5th: This is my first Homestuck story, enjoy!

“Hey. Toreador. Wake up.” Tavros sat straight up in his bed. Waking up wasn’t really an option. He twisted around in his bed and almost banged his horns on the wall. He saw an outline sitting on the windowsill in the moonlight coming through his window (which he was sure he closed). Her outline.

“Vriska?” he whisper-shouted. She reached over to the nightstand her feet were resting on and turned on the light. She was in her clothes from earlier as if she hadn’t changed for bed despite the late hour. Tavros covered his eyes for a minute, not expecting the sudden light. “Vriska, you should, uh, turn it off. Gamzee’s still, um, asleep.”

She snorted. “Pleeeeeeeease, he’s baked out of his skull on sopor. The Vant-asses could come in here and have a relatively short conversation - only six hours long - and Juggalo over there wouldn’t notice. See?” She jumped off the windowsill and clapped her hands an inch from his face. Gamzee rolled over in his bed so he was facing them. There was a trail of purple tinted drool coming out of his wide open mouth. His snoring didn’t waver.

At this point Tavros’s eyes had adjusted to the light. Vriska sat on the nightstand, pushing some of his knickknacks carelessly onto the floor. Tavros sighed at the Pokémon cards now on the ground. “Why, uh, why are you here, Vriska?”

The small grin on her face fell. “What, can’t a girl visit her friend at one in the morning?”

“Well, uh, I guess, but, um, it’s one in the morning. I was, kinda, sleeping. Are you, uh, is everything okay?”

Vriska was quiet for a while. She stared at the floor and crossed her arms.

“Vris-”

“I’m leaving Tavros.”

His jaw nearly hit the floor. Vriska’s voice was as even as if she had just told him the time of day.

“Wh-what? Leaving what? When? Wh-”

“Your voice is giving me a headache, shut up,” she ordered. Tavros shut his mouth, surprisingly, of his own accord. She sighed softly and rubbed her forehead. “I’m leaving the school, of course, dumbass. Tomorrow. And I’m gonna assume your next stuttered out question was going to be ‘Wh-wh-why?’ My mom’s taking me and Aranea out tomorrow. She thinks it’s gonna be a surprise, but it’s me. There’s no way I wouldn’t know.”

“Why is she taking you, um, out though? I thought you two, uh, liked it here.”

“We do! At least, I do. But Mom …” Vriska picked up one of the Pokémon statues on the nightstand, the Tauros one, and moved it around in her hands to distract herself. Tavros waited for her to continue patiently. “There’s a war coming Tavros. And my mom’s on Her Imperial Bitchiness’s side. So she wants me and Aranea to be on her side.”

“Her Imperial … oh, Feferi and, uh, Meenah’s mom?”

Vriska rolled her eyes, “Yes Toreasnore, try to keep up. Peixes Senior wants to separate the Trolls from everyone, mutant or not. Not only that, but she wants to kill everyone who isn’t a Troll. So she’s building an army and Mom wants me and Aranea to be the soldiers. I’m sure she has plans to steal that power from her at one point, which is the real reason she wants us with her, but for the time being, we have to obey a racist, hemo-fascist bitch!” She slammed her fist on the nightstand making Tavros jump and Gamzee mumble something in his sleep. Vriska glared at him and he continued snoring.

“Why, uh, why are you telling me this? I mean, my dad’s on Mr. Vantas’s side. Why would you tell me?”

Vriska smiled at him, “You didn’t honestly think I would take all this shit lying down, did you?”

Tavros tried to stutter out a response, but she cut him off, “Fuck no! I’m not gonna let her dictate my life! I have a plan,” she crossed her arms, “Alone, if I tried to oppose my mother, I’d be dead in a minute. But with Aranea, we have a chance. We could subdue her, make her jump off a cliff or something, then come back to school without a problem.” The way her confident grin wavered a bit told Tavros that there was more to her story.

“So, what’s the problem?”

Her whole façade fell away. “Aranea worships the ground Mom walks on. If she had to choose between me and her, I’m not sure who she’d pick.”

Tavros was shocked. One of the most core things his dad had taught him and Rufioh was that family was one of, if not the most important thing they had. To hear Vriska say that her older sister might not side with her was …

“Vriska?”

“Hm?”

“Why are you telling me this? You didn’t answer me?” Tavros was proud of himself for getting through a sentence without saying ‘um’ or ‘uh’, but Vriska just rolled her eyes.

“You weren’t specific enough. Rephrase, Toreadork.”

“Uh …, why are you telling me and not, uh, Terezi, or Kanaya, or uh, John, I guess, is what I meant.”

Vriska closed her eyes and leaned her head against the wall. “Ask me something else, something I know the answer to.”

“Um, why don’t you just, uh, you know, leave? You’ve, uh, done it before. Why not just go and, um, avoid this whole thing?”

“You ever hear the term, ‘steer into the skid’? If I run away, Mom will find me and make everything ten times worse.”

“No she wouldn’t,” Tavros said with surprising certainty. “You’re smart, you could get away. I, uh, I could help.” Vriska opened one of her eyes and arched an eyebrow. “We, um, w-we c-could both go. Rufioh told me that Beforus is staying out of the, uh, war. I’ve got some cash, if we could, uh, if we left now, we might get to the bus station by the time it comes. We take the bus to the train station and take the A1 train and we’d be at Beforus by sunrise.”

Tavros sat still in the bed. That’s got to be the longest he’s ever talked without saying ‘uh’ or ‘um’ a lot. He watched Vriska carefully. He thought (wished?) he saw a glimmer of hope in her eyes before it was squashed down and covered with a cold glare.

“A, There is no ‘we’, I want to get that through your thick skull right now,” Tavros shrunk back at her harsh words. “B, Just because Beforus is staying out of the war doesn’t mean Alternia will keep them out. I would have to run farther than Beforus. C, If I were going to run farther than Beforus, I would run a lot faster without a cripple slowing me down.”

Tavros didn’t even try to hide the hurt on his face. Vriska climbed on top of the nightstand and positioned herself to climb out the window. Because of Tavros’s disability, his room was on the first floor. “Adios, Toreador.”

She left his room with the light on and window open. Great.

Tavros was about to pull himself over and turn off the light when Gamzee stood up. “I got it Tavbro,” he drawled in his wobbly voice. The taller Troll closed the window and turned off the light.

“Uh, Gamzee?”

“Yeah bro?” he asked, flopping back in bed.

“How much of, um, that were you, uh, awake for?”

“Since she came in,” he lifted his head from the pillow and Tavros could make out a grin, “The drool was a nice touch, am I motherfucking right?”

Tavros laughed a bit then fell silent. He shifted around until he was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling.

“Hey bro?”

“Yeah Gamzee?”

“Are you alright? That last part was motherfucking brutal.”

Tavros sighed a little, “I, uh, I think so. It just, kinda, sucked, you know?”

“I guess. I know that wasn’t what you all up and wanted to hear bro, but it’s what you motherfucking,” Gamzee let out a long yawn, “needed to hear.”

Tavros thought over those words as he drifted into a restless sleep.

The next day, Tavros was on edge. Every little sound made him jump. He saw Vriska at breakfast, but she all out refused to look at him. Rufioh gave him concerned glances which he ignored.

Vriska showed no signs that anything was off. She teased some of the other students, called Kanaya a meddler (today’s name for her was Miss Meddlesome McFussyfangs) when Kanaya tried to get her to stop, and hassled Karkat sending him off on one of his famous rants. The only way Tavros knew something was wrong and her visit last night wasn’t just a prank was the small sliver of hesitation in her eyes when she began to laugh at something.

All too soon, breakfast was over and it was time for classes. On a normal day, Tavros wouldn’t see Vriska until lunch. Typically, he considered that to be a blessing, but he really just wanted to know that she was still alive.

That thought shocked him to attention in the middle of History class. Of course she was still alive! Why wouldn’t she be?

Tavros felt a sharp poke in his back. He twisted around in his chair and saw Sollux staring at him with a pencil in his hand. Tavros sent a glance back to Professor Scratch and gave his attention back to Sollux.

“What’s up?” he whispered.

“Firtht of all, I’ve been trying to get your attention for the patht ten minuteth, Profethor Thcratch’th lectureth aren’t that interething. Thecond of all, ith everything alright with Vrithka?”

“Uh, wh-what? What do you, uh, why are you asking me?”

“Cauthe I athked Tee-Thee, and KA, and even that lother John, and none of them know a damn thing. All morning I’ve been hearing her voice in my head, calling me a lithping thithead. Either the’th fucking with me for no damn reathon, or-”

“Mr. Captor and Mr. Nitram,” Professor Scratch said. Tavros whipped back around in his chair (almost taking out one of Sollux’s eyes in the process). Professor Scratch hadn’t moved from his position facing the board, but with a head like his, it was nearly impossible to tell what he was looking at. As always, his voice seemed to come from everywhere at once despite his lack of a mouth. “Perhaps you two would like to share your conversation with the class?”

Tavros’s face flushed bronze as he shook his head and tried to sink into his chair. Sollux called out a ‘no thankth’ over the other kids’ snickering. Professor Scratch kept his metaphorical eye on the two of them for the rest of the class, so Tavros couldn’t ask what he meant by “or”.

Tavros made it to lunch and wheeled his chair to his spot at the end of the usual table. He pushed the corn on his lunch tray around with his fork idly. The table filled in quickly with one seat remaining empty. Once most everyone was there, Terezi slammed her tray on the table to get everyone’s attention before sitting down.

“So!” She announced with a large grin on her face. “Question of the day: Where. Is. Vriska?”

“No,” Karkat grouched from across the table, “the question of the day is: Why should I give a shit and a half where Spiderbitch is?”

“I agree with Vantas, excluding the lewd language,” Equius said, “How does Vriska’s current location affect any of our lives at the moment?”

Tavros looked to Gamzee for support, but he was busy chugging a bottle of cherry Faygo.

Terezi began talking again, undeterred by Karkat’s terminal bad attitude. “This morning, she reeked of anxiety. According to a reliable, anonymous source-”

“She means Dave,” Karkat said to the table. It seemed emptier without Vriska to snicker at Terezi’s expense. Terezi frowned at Karkat, and was probably glaring too, but Tavros couldn’t tell.

“According to a _reliable, ANONYMOUS SOURCE, KARKLES_ ,” she yelled, “Vriska got dismissed from second period Bio. According to another reliable, anonymous source-”

“Meenah,” this time he was drubbed in the head with her cane.

“Aranea left too. She told my CI that it was a family emergency. But Vriska apparently showed no signs of being in an emergency state when she was dismissed. According to school records that I subpoenaed-”

Karkat spit out the juice he was drinking all over Eridan, earning him a hiss and a glare. “You stole school records?!”

“Actually, Sollux did the hacking and changed the IP address, so technically you did Karkles.”

Karkat was about to launch off on a huge rant, but Terezi cut him off, “According to the records, only their mom has the authority to take them off campus. If she was well enough to pull them both out, then who in their family had an emergency?”

They all quieted down at that. It was a good question that none of them had an answer to. After a minute, Kanaya spoke.

“Sollux, weren’t you saying earlier that you heard Vriska’s voice in your head?” she asked. Everyone turned to the yellow-blooded psychic. Whether they were initially interested in the conversation or not, everybody was now paying close attention to it. Sollux adjusted his red and blue glasses under the scrutiny.

“Yeah. Thinthe firtht period. The’th been inthulting me all day.”

“Perhaps she isn’t off campus, just waiting in the principal’s office for news on a family member’s condition. It’s possible that she’s been picking on Sollux to let off nervous energy.”

“Wwell if that’s the case,” Eridan said, always needing to get a word in edgewise, “then wwhy hasn’t she been pickin’ on Tavv ovver there?” He jerked a thumb in Tavros’s direction.

“She was probably tired of looking in his brain and seeing her,” Nepeta joked. This seemed to diffuse some of the tension at the table and the rest of lunch passed uneventfully.

It wasn’t until the next day that Tavros remembered another reason why Sollux might’ve heard her voice in his head.

Sollux hears the voices of the imminently deceased.

* * *

The day started innocently enough. Tavros was still distracted during breakfast and in his classes, causing him to probably fail a test. Vriska was still gone. Kanaya’s theory of her and Aranea waiting for news on a family member did exactly what Vriska did two nights ago - went out the window.

In Tavros’s biology class after lunch, the teacher got a call on the class phone. Professor Harley answered it just after Tavros entered the room.

“Room 134,” Tavros heard the older man greet in his funny voice just as he finished taking out his materials for the class.

“Which one?” Tavros looked up. Professor Harley was looking at him.

“Yes he’s here … Okay, I’ll send him up,” he hung up the phone. “Tavros Nitram, Principal Hussie would like to see you. Bring your books and such, it’ll take a while.”

With shaking hands, Tavros packed his things. Gamzee offered him help to get to the principal’s office, but Tavros denied it. He left the room by the time the lesson began.

Tavros made it halfway to the office when he saw Rufioh. His older brother gave him a smile and pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on. His orangey-brown wings stretched and moved of their own accord when he walked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be in class?” Tavros asked Rufioh. Rufioh went to the back of Tavros’s chair and began pushing him down the hall.

“I was in class … but then the teacher gets a call … says you’re taking forever to get to the principal’s office and asked if I could take you. What’d you do?”

“I, uh, I don’t know,” Tavros answered as they began climbing a ramp. The founder of the school was also confined to a wheelchair so many areas were handicap accessible.

“Oh, did you hear?” Rufioh asked.

“Hear what?”

“Horuss got pulled out today. Apparently his dad wanted to take Equius out too … but he refused. Guess they had this big fight or something. Didn’t Aranea and … didn’t they get pulled out yesterday?”

“Yeah. I haven’t heard from Vriska since, uh, day before yesterday.”

Tavros looked back and saw Rufioh nodding. “Yeah … I guess Equius didn’t want to leave his doll Nepeta here or something. Horuss was texting me through the whole thing.”

“That probably explains why he seemed, uh, distracted at lunch,” Tavros said. When he thought about it, Sollux and Aradia both seemed out of it. He was just glad it wasn’t just him, so he didn’t put much thought into it.

They were quiet the rest of the way to the office. Tavros leaned forward and knocked on the office door. Someone opened it and Rufioh pushed him in. They were both surprised to see the occupants of the room.

Kanaya was the one who opened the door. When she let them in, she went back to her seat next to her mother. Terezi and her mom were also there. Terezi was sitting and her mom was standing behind her with a hand on her daughter’s shoulder. John Egbert and his father were next to the Pyropes. Principal Hussie was sitting behind his desk, and standing next to his desk was Tavros and Rufioh’s father.

“Dad?” they asked and the man smiled. His horns were twice as large as Rufioh’s, as were his wings.

Principal Hussie cleared his throat. “Rufioh, thank you for bringing Tavros, you can go back to class.

“Andrew,” their father said. He had a large voice that seemed to fill the room, “I haven’t seen my boys in months. He can stay.” Their dad and the principal had a quick silent argument which the principal lost. Hussie sighed in defeat and shook his head.

“Fine. Have a seat.” Rufioh pulled up a chair and sat next to Tavros.

“Now that you’re all here, I would like to get to the matter at hand,” Hussie went on. “As I’m sure you all know, Vriska Serket and her sister Aranea were dismissed from school yesterday. Their mother was the one who called them.” He paused, as if considering whether or not to continue.

“Yeah, so?” Terezi prompted. “What does that have to do with us?”

“Today at 10:25, a former student who is now a state trooper found a body at the side of the road,” Tavros felt his stomach drop. “It was Vriska.”

Kanaya let out a loud cry and dropped her head into her hands. Her mother put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into her chest while she sobbed. The older jade-blood whispered comforting words to her daughter and rubbed her back.

John slowly dropped his head and wrapped his arms and his middle. His dad gently patted his head.

Rufioh probably made the connection between Vriska leaving and Horuss leaving, because he stood up so fast the chair knocked over. He muttered about needing to call Horuss then left the office.

Tavros felt like all the air had been sucked out of his lungs. That must have been why Sollux and Aradia were distracted. Vriska shut up in his head and started talking in her’s.

That thought instantly made him sick to his stomach. It must have shown on his face because his dad was next to him in a second, telling him to breathe through his nose and try to calm down. Tavros’s hands gripped the arms of his chair so tight that his gray knuckles turned white.

Just when he thought he was calming down, he got a mental image of Vriska lying on the side of a road somewhere, cerulean blood coming out of multiple gashes, maybe something worse. Like maybe she had an eye destroyed or one of her arms ripped off or something. He gestured frantically at the small trash bin by Hussie’s desk. His dad handed it to him and Tavros heaved up the contents of his lunch into it.

Terezi stared in Hussie’s general direction for a moment, then burst out laughing. Everyone, save Kanaya, turned to her. She stopped laughing after a minute. “Oh Jegus, I wish I could see your faces! Ha! You actually believe this shit?!”

Mrs. Pyrope gently put a hand on her daughter’s arm, but she jerked away from it and stood up to face them all. “Oh come on! _Obviously_ Vriska’s playing a prank on us! I got to admit, getting Hussie in on it was pretty good. And Tavros,” she began laughing again, “Tavros actually _barfed!_ Priceless! But joke’s over Mindfang! Come on out or face the wrath of Neophyte Redglare!” She yelled at the walls. Mrs. Pyrope approached her daughter again.

“Terezi.”

“Yeah Mom?”

“Terezi, this isn’t a prank.”

“Wh...what do you mean? Yes it is! Of course it is!”

“No it’s not,” Mrs. Pyrope reached her hand out to Terezi again, but she jerked away again.

“Yes it is! Stop lying!”

“Terezi,” Mrs. Pyrope took Terezi into her arms. Terezi tried to get out, but Mrs. Pyrope wouldn’t let her go, “It’s not.”

“Yes! It! Is!” She shouted before all the fight seemed to drain out of her. She collapsed in her mother’s arms and began crying. “It is! It has to be!” she said between sobs.

At one point Principal Hussie left the room, leaving the families to mourn.

* * *

It was a week after Tavros received the news of Vriska’s death. The next day, Gamzee and Kurloz were pulled out of school. The day after that, Cronus and Eridan, and after that Meenah. Her Imperial Bitchiness - Condescension, excuse him - wanted Feferi too, but she refused. Aranea and Miss Serket were unaccounted for, along with the other families that pulled their kids out of school.

Rufioh told Tavros that Mr. Zahhak had brought Horuss to Beforus to keep him out of the line of fire. Tavros talked to Gamzee every night, but lately his messages have become more … ominous. A few days before, Gamzee told him that his dad was taking away his sopor supply. That probably had something to do with it.

Currently, Tavros was lying on his bed. The room just seemed emptier without his friend. He heard a soft ping and looked at his phone resting on the nightstand. The same nightstand she sat on when she basically told him she was going to die. He grabbed it and looked at the screen

_arachnidsGrip began trolling adiosTore…_

...WHAT.

Tavros scrambled to unlock his phone, _dammit why did he put a password on this damn thing?!_

Shit. He entered the password wrong three times. He considered getting into his chair and going to the computer, but by the time he did that his phone would be back on. Nothing to do but wait.

Eventually, his phone turned back on and he opened Trollian.

_arachnidsGrip [AG] began trolling adiosToreador [AT]_

_AG: Hey._

_AG: So, if you’re getting this, it means I’m dead._

His heart sank.

_AG: I got Sollux to tell me how to set up this so it’ll send when I enter a false password._

_AG: I’ll only enter that password on the event of my de8th._

_AG: There’s a del8y, so it’ll send 8 days after I enter it._

Eight days? But it had only been seven days after Principal Hussie told them. That means …

She had been lying on that road for nearly a day before someone found her. Tavros felt sick again.

_AG: FYI I’m sending a similar message to John, Terezi, and Kanay8_

_AG: Hopefully 8y now, you kn8w I’m dead._

_AG: I’ve 8een thinking a8out what you s8d the other night._

_AG: A8out why I went to s8y good8ye to you inste8d of anyone else._

_AG: I guess …….. 8ecause I thought it would hurt less?_

_AG: I don’t kn8w._

_AG: Wh8ever the case, it didn’t work._

_AG: I know we were never really friends or 8nything …….._

_AG: 8ut I’d kind of like to th8nk we were._

_AG: I guess people a8ologize for their sins when they’re a8out to die, or something stupi8 like that._

_AG: 8ut when in Rome, I guess._

_AG: So, if it me8ns 8nything, which it pro8a8ly won’t,_

_AG: I’m sorry._

_AG: I’m sorry for picking 8n you 8ll the time._

_AG: I’m sorry for that one time I pushed you d8wn the st8rs 8ecause I thought it’d 8e funny._

_AG: I’m sorry for when we were th8rteen._

Tavros blushed, knowing exactly what she meant. That’s the last time he ever plays Spin the Bottle.

_AG: I’m sorry I said 8ye to you._

_AG: 8ecause you looked like shit this morning._

_AG: Uh …….._

_AG: Alright, that’s all the 8ig stuff, I guess._

_AG: If I missed anything then, oh well, too 8ad, so sad._

_AG: I’m de8d, so there’s no chance of me ever a8ologizing again._

_AG: See you …….._

_AG: Oh_

_AG: Guess I w8n’t see you l8r Toreasnore._

_AG: 8ye then ::::/_

_arachnidsGrip [AG] ceased trolling adiosToreador [AT]_

Tavros wiped his eyes, wondering when he started crying.

*~*

He tried to stop, but found he couldn’t. For the first time in seven days, he was really struck by the injustice of the situation. She didn’t have to die! If Aranea had been a good sister, they could’ve left their mom. If Vriska’s mom wasn’t on the wrong side of the war, she wouldn’t even have a reason to be dead. If only a thousand other things had or hadn’t happened.

And why to her? She wasn’t a bad person! She was born with a bitch of a mother and raised by a terrible nanny who she called Spidermom. She was doomed. Hell, the way things were looking, the whole damn timeline was doomed!

And that’s when Tavros remembered.

“Jeeeeeeeez, took you long enough Toreabore. I’ve been waiting here _foreeeeeeeever_ waiting for you to remember.” Tavros twisted around in his bed and stared at her with wide, white eyes. She stared back with a grin on her face and equally white eyes.

“Wow, am I really that beautiful?” she teased, flipping her long black hair over her shoulder. “I mean, Aranea mind-controlled me into walking in front of a car, but to each his own I suppose. I gotta say, your grief was really touching, the barf was a nice touch.”

Tavros stood - yes stood, it was a dream bubble, anything was possible - and went to Vriska who was sitting on the nightstand again. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her. She laughed then hugged him back.

“If you start crying I’m going to hit you, warning you now.”

**Author's Note:**

> This started as an idea for my Homestuck/X-Men story that I've been writing and evovled into it's own thing. 
> 
> Everything after the *~* is something I added as an afterthought. That's not how it would be in the actual story.
> 
> Does anyone know how to make colored text on this?
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, let me know if you have any questions!


End file.
